But before that, he began doing drainage work — a trade the Kinston native learned from his father, the late Dee Smith, who was a general contractor for 30 years and Lenoir county commissioner.

“I dug all the foundations around here,” Smith said. “I was a one-man crew to start with.”

He did the drainage work on the side while he was working for his father at the former Dee’s Restaurant,

In the mid-1980s, he began mowing big jobs with a tractor and now has five tractors and several smaller ones.

He named his business Danny Smith Landscaping & Drainage, with an office behind the restaurant. His specialty is in commercial, industrial and municipality lawns. He said his son, Danny Smith Jr., known as “Little Danny,” works with him.

“He’s been driving our tractors since he was 7 or 8 years old,” Smith said about his son.

Smith was also a firefighter and fire chief for the North Lenoir Volunteer Fire Department and retired after 27 years. When the West Pharmaceutical plant exploded, he was the person in charge for 18 hours, he said.

His drainage work experience led him to become a developer. In 1994, he developed the Hunter Creek subdivision, which he still owns.

A year or so later, he began building self-storage complexes. Hullwood Mini Storage is near his office, while three others are located elsewhere in Lenoir County.

In 2003, he started Dee’s Rental, a property rental business.

“I named that in honor of my father,” Smith said.

His father, the “backbone” of Smith’s business ventures, died in 2005, the year Smith opened Danny Smith Auto Sales, he said. The used car lot is run by his wife, Kinston native Myra Smith, and their daughter, Kristen Alphin, one of the couple’s five children.

The car lot is located in the same area as his office. Smith’s businesses and Smith Cafe, owned by Smith’s cousin George, are located on what was his father’s farm, he said.

Smith said he never imagined his sideline drainage work and one tractor would lead to the large operation he has today.